


Apples and Oranges

by wickedg



Series: Chasing Watermelons [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: rarepair_shorts, F/M, First Meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-07
Updated: 2012-09-07
Packaged: 2017-11-13 18:45:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/506545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wickedg/pseuds/wickedg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy and Katie's first beginning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apples and Oranges

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: where the watermelons grow

Every summer, on the 15th of August, Fred and George would hold a party celebrating Assumption Day. Despite it being a religious muggle holiday, they decided they liked the name and would go around making absurd assumptions about everyone while everyone else just took this as a good excuse to get completely sloshed.   
  
So every year Katie Bell would get an letter _assuming_ she’d be there whether she liked it or not, and that _assuming_ she wanted to starve, she should bring some food to contribute to the festivities.   
  
So despite Quidditch training starting up the week prior, Katie would do her part, making dishes she (not-ironically) assumed people at a Fred And George Party would enjoy.   
  
A whole seven days before the day in question, she would pierce through the skin of a watermelon with a funnel, drain the contents of two and a half bottles of fire whiskey into it and leave it to settle for the week.   
  
After its success at the inaugural Assumption Day Party it was dubbed the Fire Melon and was then assumed that Katie would bring Fire Melons to the rest of the Assumption Day Parties until the end of time. Despite having to lug around a heavy watermelon around, Katie quite enjoyed this form of hero worship upon her person. She wasn’t much for dancing at these parties, so becoming the celebrity of the party had it’s perks in the form of finding a fabulous spot on the sofa and being able to _assume_ that people were going to refill her drinks whenever she was running empty.   
  
Which they did, much to her pleasure.   
  
Being in training however, she never drank too much at these parties as they’d sometimes land in the middle of the week which would make it near impossible to get on a broom the next morning. Due to the success of the Fire Melon however, no one ever hassled her about it, deciding to assume that if she could, she would.   
  
Ah, the beauty of Assumption Day.   
  
And so it was to be until Percy Weasley finally decided to prove Fred and George’s assumption of him wrong and attend the day’s party.   
  
Katie was already in a mood that hot summer day-the team’s trainer, Cynthia Crofoot had decided that Martin Moore, Beater Extraordinaire, had been slacking off on his routine and punished them all for it.   
  
Which meant that Katie’s perfectly timed arrival to Assumption Day was ruined. No longer would she be the belle of the ball, the apple of the other party goer’s eyes, because instead of enjoying the intoxicating taste of the Fire Melon, by the time Katie arrived, they’d all be drunk enough to not even bother with the novelty of eating an alcohol-induced fruit.   
  
Which meant no prime sofa seat. And no drink fetchers.   
  
She sighed, and watermelon in her arms, kicked the front door with her foot, hoping someone would notice over the music she could hear pumping inside.   
  
Within a minute, the door swung open, an all too familiar red head behind it. Percy Weasley. He looked a little stunned, a deer in the head lights, and they stood in silence for a moment.   
  
“You carried a watermelon,” he blurted out suddenly, and immediately turned red at what he had said. In turn, she merely raised an eyebrow in agreement.   
  
“I-I-oh, come in I-” he stammered, until-  
“Bello!” Fred exclaimed from inside, “Guys! The Fire Melon has arrived!” he bellowed to the rest of the room who cheered in reply.   
  
“Yay...” she enthused, but the watermelon had already been hoisted out of her arms and Lee Jordan was brandishing a machete, a gleam to his eye.   
  
It was, she realised later, expected to end up having to stand at the edge of the makeshift dance floor. Well, maybe that was what you got from assuming too much on Assumption Day. She had assumed training would be normal and it wasn’t. And it all went downhill from there. Already having been badgered into several dances Katie wasn’t exactly having the time of her life. She looked into her near-empty glass, and decided to make her way to the kitchen for a refill.   
  
It was there where she saw Percy Weasley for the second time. Or rather, it was there where she blatantly _looked_ at Percy Weasley for the first time. His was, she decided, ‘scrawny’. She scrunched her nose at the word-such negative connotations, and the boy-nay, man-hardly had a negative thing about him.   
  
He wasn’t a hulking, muscular Quidditch player, but she saw enough of that on the pitch, and more than enough of that in changing rooms. So while she agreed with many of her friends that height was a definite plus, she could not deny the allure of those long slim legs, accentuated cheek and hip bones, and not to mention-delicate wrists.  
  
Suddenly, Angelina was by her side.  
  
“Whatcha looking at, Katie?” she asked speculatively.  
  
Kate smirked, continuing to eye the man in question.   
  
“Hmm? Oh, nothing much...”  
  
Angie snorted into her drink.   
  
“Oh Katie, I know that look...” she sang out. She was, Katie realised, already three sheets to the wind. So much for being subtle then.   
  
“Look? What look?”  
  
“Like you’re about to eat someone right up, _that_ look.” she stated, and then sighed. “Poor Percy-won’t even know what hit him...”  
  
“I wouldn’t want to _hit_ him, Angie.” Katie grinned, and Angelina laughed. “He’s just so...pretty. When did that happen, d’you reckon? I don’t remember him being all like... _that_.” she said with a sigh.  
  
“George says he was working in Tokyo at one point.” Angelina offered up.  
  
“So? Is there something in the water there or...something?” Katie finished without much eloquence.   
  
“Or something.” Angelina confirmed.   
  
“Hey! No! Bad girl, bad-you’re a married missus, missus.”  
  
“Aww come on, I’m agreeing with you for once! Can’t we just savor the moment?”  
  
Katie sighed and looked around the room. Because of her late arrival, there was more Fire Melon left over than-well, than ever. She looked to Percy and made up her mind.   
  
“Ok, that’s it-I’m going in Angie-no assuming on Assumption Day.”   
  
“Hurrah Katie!”  
  
With that, she walked towards him, sidestepping to grab two triangles of Fire Melon on the way.   
  
“Hi Percy.”  
  
He looked a little startled at her abrupt appearance but nevertheless gave her a small smile (she may have melted a little at this-no comment).  
  
“Hi, uh Kate.”  
  
She rolled her eyes at this.   
  
“I’m still Katie, Percy. They just call me that to make me seem more tough on the pitch. You know, it’s a man’s world and all that rubbish.”  
  
“Well I suppose it’s best to allow them to assume rather than have to prove them wrong.” at her blank look he elaborated a bit, cheeks turning slightly pink in the process. “I-I mean your name-if they know you as Katie before they meet you, you have to work harder to prove to them that you aren’t as young as the name sounds, whereas with the name Kate they no longer have those pre-conceived notions, and even if they think you _look_ small, they’ll still take you seriously. Mind games, really.” he finished with a rush of a breath. Katie gave him a gentle smile.   
  
“Yeah, that’s the general idea...melon slice?” she held up the curved triangle of bright pink fruit, its juices dripping down onto her fingers a bit.   
  
“Ah, the famous watermelon.” he said, reaching for it. “Thanks.”   
  
“My pleasure.” she said sweetly, carefully watching for his reaction. He took a bite, lips puckering slightly one second, and then turning into a grimace the next.   
  
“Too strong..?” Katie asked, disappointment lacing her words.   
  
“No, no-it’s just, extremely sweet. Wasn’t quite expecting that.”   
  
Katie raised an eyebrow at this. Too sweet? While the juice of the melon certainly added a welcome, fruity burst of relief against the hard taste of the Fire Whiskey, it certainly didn’t over power it. Katie had actually added an extra half bottle this year, assuming it would go down well with the rest of the party.   
  
Well, Katie and assuming weren’t getting along too well today. Huh.   
  
Hesitantly, she took a bite for herself. A little stronger than she was used to, but the fruity taste wasn’t exactly at the forefront of her mind when she swallowed it.  
  
Wait. She could drink half her team under the table in the off-season, so either Percy was uncannily tolerant when it came to alcohol, or her taste buds were completely out of whack.   
  
“Say Katie,” she started, words a little unsure, face a tad hesitant. “I uh, I sometimes get sent to Japan for work-would it be terribly presumptuous of me to bring some Kawachi back for you?”  
  
She paused for a second-presumptuous? She opened her mouth to reply when he quickly started up again, adding: “It’s a type of Japanese wine-pretty hefty stuff, so...”  
  
What?  
  
“What? Stronger than this?” she asked incredulous, gesturing the slice of melon in her hand.  
  
Percy looked a little confused.   
  
“Oh...is this quite strong then?”   
  
Honestly, she would’ve smacked him if he hadn’t looked so bloody earnest about it.   
  
“Yes Percy,” she said, cheeks turning pink, “I put in enough Fire Whiskey to stop a troll in its tracks, so it can’t not be strong!”  
  
He looked abashed, almost ashamed like he had somehow tasted it wrong.   
  
“Shall...I mean, _can_ I bring you back a square watermelon as well?”

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, and also, the Fred is alive. Just saying. Fun times.


End file.
